Dodd Takes Last Stand Against Spying Bill

In this week of All Dodd, All The Time, we're also seeing the last gasp of Sen. Chris Dodd's long resistance of the updates to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. He was among 15 senators who stood against a procedural test vote of the FISA bill this evening.

The other side mustered a commanding 80 votes. The likely result is that FISA may pass by the end of Thursday.

At the start of the year, when Dodd had returned from his failed attempt to become president, he seemed to have two main things on his mind: Pass a housing bill and kill the FISA provision that would protect telecommunications companies from lawsuits based on their assistance to the government's wiretap spying program.

The housing bill looks like it's got a shot to pass by the end of this week. And FISA will probably join it on its way to the president's desk.

This is what he had to say after tonight's vote: "If passed, this legislation will ratify a domestic spying regime that has already concentrated far too much unaccountable power in the president's hands and will place the telecommunications companies above the law. I stand ready to offer an amendment that strips the retroactive immunity provision out of the bill. I implore my colleagues to support of the rule of law and join me in voting against retroactive immunity."

[Sounds a little like the kind of deal-killing amendments he's trying to stop on the housing bill.]